Tomorrow Joseph Brider will stand before a judge as he is sentenced for the horrific murder of Juliana Bonilla-Herrera while on parole for rape nearly eight years earlier. Sam Sherwood reports on the loving, kind woman who moved to New Zealand for a better life, only to have it taken by the “animal” next door, the very person she was most afraid of.
It had been years since Adam Rossiter had properly connected with his ex-girlfriend Juliana Bonilla-Herrera. But as he sat at his home, a short walk from where she lived, he could not shake the voice inside that was telling him to go see her.
After some time convincing himself he walked for about 15 minutes until he stood outside Bonilla-Herrera’s home in the block of four flats before “chickening out”, and walking to the park at the end of the road.
While there he bumped into some friends which helped calm his nerves. He then went back to Bonilla-Herrera’s flat and knocked, telling himself that the worst-case scenario was he would make a fool of himself.
“She had the biggest smile on her face,” he says, recalling the moment to the Herald.
She then welcomed him into her home and they spoke at length over a drink.
In the week that followed they went for a run together and spoke about the last few years and their plans for the future.
Bonilla-Herrera often expressed she did not feel good enough, that no-one liked her and that her English was not up to scratch.
However, in her conversations with Rossiter that week she said she no longer felt that way, she now knew it was just “a lie”.
“I remember just thinking yay for her... I used to say to her it is just a lie, people like you Juli. It had a wee bit of a hold on her, and when she said to me, ‘I’m not taking this lie anymore’ I just got excited for her.”
After a run around Hagley Park, they went back to her place and she said she wanted to do a half-marathon. They then plotted a 10km route around the park they would try the following week.
Bonilla-Herrera had also briefly mentioned a man who lived in the flat beside her and how she felt he was watching her. Rossiter said to listen to her instinct and to look for a new place.
A day later that man would break into her home as she slept and murder her in an horrendous attack.
‘She was amazing’
Bonilla-Herrera moved from Colombia to New Zealand in 2011, calling Auckland her new home. Five years later she moved to Christchurch where she worked for a marketing and strategy company and was passionate about 3D animation.
Around the same time, Rossiter returned to Christchurch after spending time overseas.
The pair met one night at a bar that was hosting Latin dancing. Rossiter, a keen dancer, had a dance with Bonilla-Herrera.
“I thought she seemed really lovely, a bit of a hard case.”
As the evening came to an end Rossiter told her he would like to see her again. Bonilla-Herrera said she would be there next week, however, when next week came, she did not turn up.
A few months later Rossiter went to a Colombian independence party at a bar with some friends. While there he saw Bonilla-Herrera sitting on a couch by herself.
He sat down beside her and they got talking before having a dance. As he left the pair exchanged contact details and arranged to have dinner sometime. A short while later their relationship began.
“She was very loyal and very passionate ... she was a hard worker and fun to be around.”
The pair separated in 2018.
“I loved her a lot and I know she loved me a lot. We just didn’t work in that moment, and it was never like there was any resentment.”
Several months later Bonilla-Herrera started dating Tiju Joseph. The pair met through mutual friends at a birthday party before spending time together on a group trip to Hanmer Springs.
“We were very similar in a lot of ways,” Joseph told the Herald.
“Same music taste, same hobbies like photography. We had the same brand of headphones and camera and we both loved anime ... we really enjoyed each other’s company.”
Joseph says Bonilla-Herrera was incredibly caring, often sending money to family overseas.
“She was amazing.”
The man next door
It was mid-2018 when Joseph moved into Bonilla-Herrera’s flat on Grove Rd. He recalls being “quite surprised” when he found out the flat next door was a halfway house.
During his time living with Bonilla-Herrera about six men lived in the flat. In November 2021 the latest man moved in, Joseph Brider.
At first, the couple thought nothing of Brider.
“Initially me and Juliana would be scared every time a new person moved in ... the few people that we had in the past looked way scarier. But once they talked, they were super gentle ... most of them would even mow our lawns.”
A month after Brider moved in, Joseph and Bonilla-Herrera broke up and he went to Australia looking for work.
Despite their relationship ending, the pair remained good friends and were speaking regularly.
During one phone call Bonilla-Herrera mentioned to Joseph she felt Brider was stalking her, watching her as she left for work and when she got home.
“She didn’t go into a lot of details at the time, she was just worried. I was basically comforting her, saying you’ll be fine. I told her we never had any problems in the past, he’s just a guy who doesn’t have anything to do, probably looking out through the window all the time.”
Joseph said Bonilla-Herrera would almost every night wake up screaming during his time living with her.
“She would wake up in her sleep thinking that someone is in her room and someone is going to do something bad to her. She would scream in the middle of the night and then wake up and she’d be like ‘who are you? who are you?’ and I’d have to hold her and tell her it’s alright, go to sleep.”
Bonilla-Herrera ended up downloading an app that recorded sound during her sleep.
‘I couldn’t believe it’
About 10.10pm on January 21, Bonilla-Herrera arrived home from an evening out with a friend with the intention of going to bed early as she had arranged to go for a bike ride with another friend at 6am the next morning.
As she got home Brider was sitting outside on the porch of his flat. The sight made Bonilla-Herrera feel uneasy, so she asked her friend to drive her up the driveway to her flat and wait until she had gone inside before leaving.
Once inside she spoke to some friends on Instagram until just after 10.30pm.
It was after midnight when Brider broke into the flat. At 12.32 the app on Bonilla-Herrera’s phone began recording as she can be heard saying “excuse me”. The recording captured the first 10 minutes of her murder.
Brider inflicted 51 separate blunt-force injuries and stabbed her repeatedly before leaving her in the doorway area of her home.
About 6am, when Bonilla-Herrera failed to show up for her morning bike ride, her friend tried phoning her but received no answer.
He then biked to her flat, knocking on the door and getting no response. Brider was outside the flat and asked the friend if he was looking for her and suggested she must still be asleep.
The friend then started contacting more of Bonilla-Herrera’s friends asking if they had heard from her.
A short time later Rossiter received a message from Bonilla-Herrera’s best friend asking if she was with him.
“I just got this horrible feeling ... I just went cold,” he said.
About 9pm, a group of friends went to Bonilla-Herrera’s home and called the police. They were told they could enter the home if they felt comfortable.
They were still on the phone with the police when they went inside and found her.
One of the group texted Rossiter and said “we’ve found her, she’s passed”.
“I’m thinking have I misread this? And I just started ringing around and went into a panic.”
He then went to the scene. Rossiter and the rest of the group told police about Bonilla-Herrera’s concerns about her neighbour.
News of the tragedy began to spread through the group with Joseph also getting a call from a friend in Christchurch.
“I couldn’t believe it ... I completely lost it.”
A day earlier Joseph was on the phone with Bonilla-Herrera. She told him she was planning to go to Colombia for six months but was just waiting on her passport to arrive. The passport arrived the following week.
‘The gift of a week from heaven’
Bonilla-Herrera was farewelled in March after her mother and sister arrived in Christchurch.
Rossiter met the pair outside the service shortly beforehand and asked if it would be okay for him to read a speech he had prepared.
The speech, titled “the gift of a week from heaven”, began with him talking about visiting Bonilla-Herrera’s home.
“Juliana’s capacity to show love and acceptance was on display the moment she opened the door with her big beautiful smile she welcomed me into her house.”
Rossiter said one thing he had learned was if you’re a friend of Bonilla-Herrera’s you were a friend for life.
“She was so loyal to this and in my blindness, I used to think of this as a bit of a weakness, but now I consider it as one of her greatest strengths.
“No matter how someone may have hurt her, she always saw with compassion that it was their fears, pain, and woundedness that made them do this.”
During their conversations, Bonilla-Herrera had told him about her family and how much she could not wait to see them again.
“She was such a fighter, she said how much her friends were helping her get out for rides on her mountain bike and go for walks and how she just wanted to get out there and see more instead of hiding away in her fears.
“I was so inspired by her strength and the changes she had put in place.”
He finished by saying he was proud to call her his friend “who inspired me to be a better person”.
‘A monster’
In September last year, Brider pleaded guilty to murdering Bonilla-Herrera. Joseph, who had moved back to Christchurch shortly after her murder, sat in the courtroom as the Crown prosecutor read the summary of facts.
“I could visualise everything. The fact that I lived in that house I could imagine how Juli would be sleeping, everything that happened I could visualise ... I could see it so clearly like a movie.”
Another of Bonilla-Herrera’s friends, Murray Stewart, was sitting near Joseph as the facts were being outlined.
“I was just feeling sicker and sicker, I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Just the viciousness … I couldn’t look at anyone else ... I was just thinking oh my God, poor Juliana, I just couldn’t believe it.”
Rossiter has purposely not read any of the articles about Bonilla-Herrera’s death.
“Going to court and hearing all the detail I think I would probably end up vomiting on the floor.”
Both Joseph and Rossiter are adamant Bonilla-Herrera should have been told that Brider was on parole for rape.
The Department of Corrections has commissioned an independent review of its existing notification policy on placing offenders on parole in the community.
“There need to be changes,” Rossiter says.
The Herald understands the Crown is asking for Brider to be sentenced to preventive detention, meaning he would not be released from prison unless the Parole Board was satisfied he is not a danger to the community.
Rossiter agrees with the sentence and says he should never be let out.
Joseph refers to Brider as “an animal, a monster”.
“He shouldn’t be in human society. That kind of behaviour is not human being behaviour, he should not be classified as a human being.”
Rossiter says he does not want to grow in hate.
“Ultimately judgement will be left to God. Hate only produces more hate and destruction.
“When we let hate grow we see how ugly it can be and become and the pain it can cause.”
‘It will never be over’
The last year has been “incredibly difficult”, Joseph says. At first, he could not bring himself to drive anywhere near Addington, or go to the same places the couple once did.
One year on from Bonilla-Herrera’s death a memorial was held near her home. Joseph did not think he could attend, so the night prior, he stood outside her home. While outside he saw some flowers on the tree, he could not stand there any longer and got in his car, and drove home.
Rossiter says he was surprised at how emotional he was on the anniversary.
“It will never be over ... I will always have a sadness.”
He says his faith has helped him as he continues to come to terms with what happened, as well as his friends.
Looking back at his decision to knock on Bonilla-Herrera’s door a week before her death, Rossiter says he has no regrets and is thankful they were able to reconnect.
When asked how he would like her to be remembered Rossiter takes a deep breath.
“She was a friend, she was a daughter,” he begins as he tries to find the perfect word.
“A giver, loyal, cheeky, stubborn, passionate.”
Then he takes a long pause, trying to hold off the tears before saying one more word.
“Unforgettable.”
